Tutorial 2: Track Creation and Organization - Post-Production Audio Workflow Series

[@KoKso4Ka]

Michael, I just wanted to thank you for your immensely useful tutorial - you've been of great help and it was very nice to look at a pro in action. You are the real MVP

[@FilmSoundTutorials]

Hi! Sorry for the delayed response. Thank you so much for the kind words. I've been looking to make this tutorial series for almost three years now and am pleased I finally found some time to make them a reality. I hope they are helpful and stay tuned for more videos coming soon. Thanks!

[@evilsarita]

I literally owe you my life

[@FilmSoundTutorials]

Happy to help. Thanks for watching!

[@soundsfunnyrecords5910]

This is an incredibly helpful series, very well done. I actually remember coming across this a few years ago when I was first starting to work with audio and post production. It was way over my head but I watched anyway and it put some great tips and guidelines floating around in the back of my head. I'm really glad I found this again and can watch with a whole new understanding of this process!

[@FilmSoundTutorials]

Awesome, I'm glad the videos are helpful. Thanks for watching!

[@Sonic_Kurt]

If I understand correctly, you put each character on its own dialog track. What do you do with minor characters or a movie with a lot of characters? Do you then create 8 additional dialog tracks or do you assign the existing tracks multiple times?

[@FilmSoundTutorials]

There's a couple different ways to dialogue edit. Some people only put all of the dialogue on a few tracks (let's say 8 max). But then when a new character's dialogue comes up on that track, you have to use track automation to add the correct plugin settings (EQ, compression, de-esser, etc) to that specific audio file. On the other hand, if each character has their own track, then you don't have to use as much automation, and can set the plugin settings for the entire track. But then you have the problem of having many dialogue tracks, which can be a hassle to mix on a mixing console. So the organization is up to whoever will be the mixing of the film. When I'm working alone, I like to use as many tracks, but using less tracks is the more "professional" workflow. Hope that helps!

[@ltbruun3991]

Awesome tutorial!

[@FilmSoundTutorials]

Thanks for watching!

[@darkannemol]

5:22 - Why do you use a mono track and 4 stereo tracks? Could you tell me what the reason for that is?

[@FilmSoundTutorials]

Sure, so when I work on 5.1 surround sound projects, you need to make sure you have background tracks to fill every speaker. So if you have 1 mono track and 4 stereo tracks per scene, then you would generally pan the mono track to the center speaker, pan two stereo tracks to the front, and two stereo tracks to the surrounds. Now normally I technically have 9 tracks total, 1 mono, and then 4 stereo tracks in front and 4 in the surrounds, but I simplified it for this tutorial. Anyways, that's the thinking behind the number of tracks, is that you're already thinking about which speaker the sound is going to come from when you're picking your background tracks. Hope that answers your question!

[@darkannemol]

@@FilmSoundTutorials Thank you ! What a quick response thank you very much. You make very helpful and understandable tutorials thanks for that also haha.

[@FilmSoundTutorials]

@@darkannemol Of course, happy to help. Thanks for watching!

[@eye.elle.8251]

I also had this question while watching, but what if you're not working in 5.1 and don't expect your film to show in that format. Would stereo suffice?

[@AskonDBZ]

Should i lower the volume of all active 2pops until they hit -20db? With the family they hit about -6

[@FilmSoundTutorials]

No, if you check out my Export Tutorial #18, you'll see that I replace the 2 Pop on the Stems so they're -20db. But until then, it doesn't really matter how loud they are, they're just there to ensure that each track stays in sync with each other. Hope that helps!

[@AskonDBZ]

@@FilmSoundTutorials Thank you! I'm still watching your tutorials and haven't reached that one yet so my bad lol! Amazing tutorials, they're so helpful

[@FilmSoundTutorials]

@@AskonDBZ Yep np! Awesome, I'm glad they're helpful. Thanks for watching!

[@vdweck1]

Michael, I just want to let you know that across Lynda, Groove3, essentially all of KZbin, and so basically the Internet, this is the only paid or unpaid Pro Tools for Film tutorial that is truly comprehensive and actually worthwhile. Any chance you will finish the tutorial and cover compression, printing, and final delivery? Thanks so much for your time.

[@FilmSoundTutorials]

Hi Victor, I appreciate the kind words. Yes those are the topics I would cover if/when I finish up these videos. I've just been focusing on making sound effect libraries recently since those are easier to edit and release. But yes, I'll finish these someday. Thanks for the encouragement!

[@vdweck1]

@@FilmSoundTutorials Thanks. I used your tutorials to create some of the sound in my show. Check out dweckshow.com for even more encouragement!

[@stevegeorge7773]

This is great. Thank you. Question is whether you create one of these for each broadcast region, in regard to frame rates? So some are as you have but others like Brittain, and UE countries, Asian will be different. Just a thought that I thought I would ask about.

[@FilmSoundTutorials]

Happy to help! Yes, different regions use different frame rates, but generally I only work with picturelock video files that have a set frame rate. So I'm normally working in 23.976 FPS since I generally work on American films which were shot digitally. But I've also worked in 24 FPS for some films shot on film, and in 29.97 for some TV episodes as well. Now if the film changes frame-rates after I've worked on it, then there's a couple different ways to speed up or slow down the audio mix. But that's normally not something I have to do myself. Hope that helps!

[@stevegeorge7773]

@@FilmSoundTutorials Thank you for replying!! Im working through your series at the moment. So far, so great.

[@Méchant-Singe]

Hello ! I did not understand how you can verify if the sync is good with the 2 Pop clips you created on each group's family tracks . Can you tell me little more please ? Thanks for your tips, really awesome! Cheers

[@FilmSoundTutorials]

The 2 Pop is just to make sure that the audio is in sync with the picture. So if you put a 2 pop on every track, then you know that each track is in-sync with the picture and hasn't gotten moved accidentally. It's just a nice visual indication to have. Thanks for watching!

[@YagoFranco]

Hi, first of all thanks for this series of videos, they are absolutely fantastic. I was in doubt about the routing of the PFX tracks. Do you send them over the dialog bus?

[@FilmSoundTutorials]

Yes, you send them to the dialogue bus since they were recorded on set with the dialogue. The real reason we split them into their own track is because if you're making an M+E mix, then they'll need to be included in the FX stem. But generally they're in the DX bus and stem. Good question! Thanks for watching!

[@dollarsaurus01]

Excellent tutorial series! One question I have for this one is where do you place your VO tracks? Do you include those in the DX tracks or create separate tracks for VO?

[@FilmSoundTutorials]

Good question! Generally the VO tracks are separate from the DX tracks, mostly because you're going to have to use different plugins to make them match the production dialogue. Hope that helps!

[@MPA188]

Hi Michael, do we need to cut Foley sound out of Dialogue into PFX tracks apart from Production sound effects? Taking the bull horn out of that women in your film is considered Sound FX or Foley?

[@FilmSoundTutorials]

So it's kind of a grey area. The reason we pull out PFX from the dialogue tracks is for the M+E mix (music and effects only mix), just in case the Director/Producer wants to dub the film in a foreign language in the future. So if pulling out the sound would make a better M+E mix, then yes you should move it to the PFX track and replace it with fill in the dialogue track. But you also don't want to cut up the dialogue tracks so much that it sounds un-natural. So placing the bull horn into the PFX track was a judgement call, but I did it because since that sound effect is important to telling the story, it should be in the M+E mix to help tell the story in a different language. Hope that answers your question!

[@MPA188]

@@FilmSoundTutorials So it doesn't matter whether they are foley or sound fx, as long as they are major sound piece, they should be moved into a PFX track to make the better M&E track, right?

[@FilmSoundTutorials]

@@MPA188 So just to clarify, any sound effect from the dialogue tracks is a PFX (production sound effect) since it was recorded on set. Foley is recorded on a sound stage in post. But to answer your question, yes I think that's a good rule to go by. Generally something important to the story or a sound that is just loud in general (car door slam for example) is good to move to the PFX track. That way, 1. They're mixed into the M+E and 2. The mixer can more easily control the volume of it since it's on a separate track. But again, you need to be careful not to cut up the dialogue track too much. Hope that helps!

[@MPA188]

@@FilmSoundTutorials Oh, my God, thanks for clarifying that. I thought definition of Foley sound is the sound created by human characters and Sound effects are sound created by objects in the scene though additional Foley are recorded in a sound stage later in the post. I had this concept for a long long time.

[@FilmSoundTutorials]

@@MPA188 Sure no problem! And you were sort-of right. Normally in a foley stage you focus on recording and re-creating the sounds made by the human characters first since those are harder to find in a pre-recorded sound effect library. But recording on set versus recording in post are two totally different sound departments. So that should be reflected in how your Pro Tools session is organized. Thanks for watching!

[@LOLitzPaul]

I feel like the keyboard shortcuts like Shift + P aren't available on my copy of Pro Tools.

[@FilmSoundTutorials]

Hmmm nah that can't be true. Just make sure that the grey/yellow "A/Z" icon on the top right is selected. I think I talk about it in the Tutorial 1 video. Thanks for watching!

[@marioselim]

Thanks for the video... and sorry for so basic question: if I have many characters in my cast (more than thirty) how many dialogue track do you advice to create? !Awesome tutorial series!

[@FilmSoundTutorials]

Wow, that's quite a few! So you should have as many dialogue tracks as the maximum amount of characters you have talking in the same scene. So if in your largest scene you have 8 characters talking, then you should have 8 dialogue tracks. But normally you want to keep your amount of tracks to a minimum. I find that sessions with too many tracks eventually become unwieldy. Hope that answers your question!

[@marioselim]

@@FilmSoundTutorials Thanks!, yeah that responded absolutely my question. Thanks a lot! (It's a soccer film)

[@FilmSoundTutorials]

@@marioselim Happy to help. Thanks for watching!

[@danielrotman7317]

You rock!

[@FilmSoundTutorials]

Thanks! Thanks for watching!

[@Assassins6688]

Man I am at work the boss told me use the pro tools in the main computer like and you know my teacher.

[@FilmSoundTutorials]

Glad they could help. Thanks for watching!